Usually, computers, laptops, tablets and even handheld smartphones need to be kept away from dust, water, higher temperatures, strong vibrations and some other harsh working conditions to retain their performance and finish as well. However, in some places, it would not be possible to avoid these things. Places such as process industries, buildings near busy roads, control cabins of large boilers and so on; would not have ideal working conditions that suit usual computers and laptops.

These rugged laptops are classified as semi-rugged laptops, fully-rugged laptops and ultra-rugged laptops depending upon their design to sustain adverse and harsh working conditions.

• Semi-rugged laptops are usually known as business-rugged laptops as they would be designed to suit the working conditions in a typical business environment. The hardware devices deployed on these laptops would be similar to usual laptops. However, these components would be protected in a better way through the sturdy body build and some other features. For instance, usually a semi-rugged laptop would have a thicker case to sustain vibrations and falls, gel mounted hard disk drive and a spill-proof keyboard for optimum performance sustaining various harsh working conditions.
• Fully-rugged laptops would be designed completely to work in harsh conditions. They would be designed to sustain the extreme temperatures, designed not to be damaged due to drops, designed to be resistant to shocks and vibrations. So, fully-rugged laptops would have solid state hard drive without any moving parts that would run cool and would not require a fan for cooling.
• Ultra-rugged laptops would be designed to meet the rigorous quality standards that are especially used for military applications. These laptops would be made to handle the harshest working conditions. The users can leave these laptops in sandstorms, these can be frozen under the snow, and these can also be installed in highly vibrating rockets that travel to space. Thus these laptops would be the best for too harsh conditions as well.

To determine the degree of ruggedization, there are some standards that the users can use to check the compatibility for the exact application. Ingress Protection Code (IP Code) classifies the degree of protection provided by the enclosures of different electric devices and systems. Similarly, MIL-STD 810 would provide the testing guidelines that are derived by the US Department of Defense for military applications.

In usual practice, most of the laptops used especially for harsh conditions would be semi-rugged. Some of the harsh working conditions would require fully-rugged laptops. We can select the various available options depending upon the standard of protection we require for our laptops. We can select the optimum configuration and physical features of laptops to sustain the adverse conditions and keep on delivering effective results.